Collin’s Corner: As I Walk the Chandy Beaches

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Hey guys Collin here bringing you an article hopefully about something new and unheard of. I like to play and experiment with rogue decks over the course of Battle Roads as sort of a tradition, and this year has been no different as I’ve experiment with one of my old favorites, Chandelure NVI. Continue reading to find out about a neat deck that can compete with the top decks and has been living in the shadows the whole time!

So, this sort of mechanic has been around since Cities last year, and that’s the concept of switching Chandelure NVIs out and using its Ability Cursed Shadow to drop three damage counters in any way you like multiple times. Meanwhile, since you aren’t attacking, you can use the Stadium Tropical Beach to make sure you always have a minimum of seven cards in hand.

The new way, and the way I am playing it, is with Vanilluxe NXD and Darkrai EX. Vanilluxe NXD’s Ability is called Slippery Soles and effectively works just like Warp Point. Both players switch their active Pokémon with a Pokémon on their bench. Then, I use Darkrai EX’s Dark Cloak Abillity to allow me to retreat for free.

This allows me to use Cursed Shadow 3 times given the right number of Chandelure in play and at least 1 Vanilluxe NXD and 1 Darkrai EX in play. On top of that I have Terrakion NVI and Energy Switch in there to help with the Darkrai matchup. And to top all of it off I have 2 Tropical Beach in my deck.

When we first saw this idea pop up at Cities last year it was played solely with Chandelure, Dodrio UD, Tropical Beach and a massive Trainer engine to help make sure you hit a Switch every turn as well as get set up as fast as possible. The ability to consistently hit for 90 anywhere (and being able to spread that damage none the less) was what made this deck so great. But, on the downside, Tropical Beach is an expensive card, and most lists of that type ran 4 of them. This made it severely less playable and harder to build. (I may refer to this as ChandyBeach from here on out.)

pokemon-paradijs.comThe next version came very shortly after the ChandyBeach deck. It was completely innovative and DEFINITELY not expected whatsoever – aw who am I kidding! It was Chandelure/Dodrio/Beach/…VILEPLUME! The idea was run around 1-2 Tropical Beach while relying more on Vileplume UD to help out with matchups.

This was a lot easier to play because of the lower Tropical Beach count, and you attacked rather than not attacking which is sometimes hard to understand (I mean, what kind of Pokémon deck doesn’t use any attacks?!). In the end this was also just simpler to play than the ChandyBeach deck. This variant if I’m not mistaken, had more wins than ChandyBeach at the end of Cities as well.

Another version that was toyed with a bit was the “Drop It Like It’s Hot” variant. It played Chandelure NXD rather than Chandelure NVI and it used Ninetales HS as its draw power rather than Tropical Beach. The idea is rather similar (spread 30 damage and draw cards consistently) but it had a completely different play style and attitude to it than other Chandelure based decks. It was all aggro, instead of the “wait and then use Twins” play style, and it played R Energy and Pokémon instead of Psychic.

I personally thought the article written on this was great and explained why it was a good deck and had a good shot against the top decks at the time. Unfortunately, we didn’t really see this deck have any big wins (which surprised me) and neither did its relative Chandelure variants at States and Spring Regionals.

Pretty much the last way we saw this deck in competitve play was the Yoshi Tate build. It was that weird sort of build of Accelgor that nobody saw coming, but actually preformed quite remarkably. The idea was you would use the deck as a standard Accelgor deck with Mew Prime and Vileplume – but with Chandelure and Darkrai EX to help add a few extra damage counters to Accelgor’s attack. This was phenomenal because it allowed you to add up to perfect KOs quicker on high HP Pokémon and just Pokémon in general. I was honestly surprised when I saw the pairings for top cut at Worlds and there was only one of these decks in the top 16; and even worse, it didn’t continue after that.

I’m not going to lie, I did NOT come up with this deck by myself. These are the things and people I could not have made this deck without:

• Curtis, a local player had been toying with this sort of idea but it was very different (no Terrakion, Energy Switch, or F Energy, and he played Switch and Sabeleye as an engine).
• I had seen this idea (Chandelure/Vanilluxe) a while back I think on a forum as a joke and people were laughing at it and saying it was going to win Worlds 2012 and stuff (this was back around States-ish).
• My great moral support by my good friend Tyler (sarcasm).
• The great support from my dad (his exact words: I can’t wait to see you go 1-4 with that deck and me go undefeated with Zeels today. You know it’s going to happen. :)).

I built my first list FULLY THEORYMONED. I played like 4 Switch and 2 Sabeleye DEX and chose to go with that sort of build. In testing, anything that played Darkrai would pretty much auto-win. Chandelure was weak to Dark, and that’s what sealed its fate… in that build at least.

pokemon-paradijs.comI then tried to build a version where you attack with your own Darkrai and have Dark Patch and Energy Switch to accelerate your Darkrais and get Night Spear off as soon as possible. Again, I was having the same problems with other Darkrais. I thought there’s just no way around it.

I somewhat gave up on this deck and went on to play Rayeels for the first Battle Roads. I went 3-1 and was not too thrilled with the bad draws I got throughout the day. I got pretty lucky that day considering the dead hands I would get and I was always able to barely draw something that would get me in a better position just enough to win the game.

I was sure to keep working on that deck but I wanted something different to play at the next Battle Roads. I went back to my Chandelure deck and thoroughly investigated all the ways I could build this deck. I pondered across Terrakion as a possible counter for Darkrai as a bit of a joke… But then I started actually thinkng “If I keep the Energy Switch in there and take out Dark Patch… add some F Energy… and maybe even Exp. Share… I got something going!”

The first list actually wasn’t all that good and it was very slow to set up and hard to get KOs with Terrakion. I looked into it more and decided to take out the Exp. Shares all together and added one more Super Rod and another Energy Switch. I haven’t provided a list yet, and I know you are dying to see it, so here its is:

The Chandy Beach

Pokémon – 21 4 Litwick BLW Promo BW27 2 Lampet NVI 4 Chandelure NVI 3 Vanillite NXD 2 Vanillish NVI 2 Vanilluxe NXD 2 Darkrai-EX DEX 2 Terrakion NVI

Trainers – 28 4 N 3 Cheren 2 Professor Juniper 1 Bianca   4 Rare Candy 3 Ultra Ball 3 Energy Switch 2 Max Potion 2 Pokémon Communication 2 Super Rod   2 Tropical Beach

Energy – 9 6 D – Basic 3 F

The Tournament

I did end up taking this to my second Battle Roads and was extremely curious of how it would play out. I played a few games the night before the tournament and actually won quite a few games. Another reason I decided to play this deck is because I always play an unusual deck at the place the tournament was being held.

I had played my Lugia deck there (in Spring 2012) and also my Reshiphlosion with Reuniclus (back in Fall 2011) and I had to keep the tradition up. Also, each time I played a rogue deck at this tournament location, I managed to win; that was also a trend I wanted to keep up.

Round 1: vs Conner w/ Garchomp/Altaria

pokemon-paradijs.comConner is a player I have never seen before, so I immediately think he is new to the game. Then, he takes a deck box out of his bag (the Worlds 2012 one I believe) and then his deck using the Japanese Hydreigon/Garchomp sleeves. “Maybe this guy isn’t so new,” I thought as we shuffled up and got ready to play. He turns out to be a player from Nevada who was just dropping by for some Battle Roads.

I go first and get an amazing Turn 2 Chandelure, but not much else. I see he is playing FluffyChomp when he uses his Emolga to set up, grabbing a Gible and a Swablu. I can tell he is confused, especially when he sees I place down a Vanillite. Oh boy, when he sees my Darkrai on the bench he plainly asks me “Okay what is going on here!?” with a lighthearted laugh. I tell him it’s a rogue Chandelure deck and very basically explained how it works. I honestly didn’t really mind telling him because he was a very friendly opponent and my favorite to play out of the whole day.

By around T5 both of us were follow set up and fluently exchanging prizes against one another. I played a Max Potion that really threw him off quite a bit. Near the end I was in complete control and there wasn’t much he could do. For my last prize I was just messing around and took 2 Prizes to win by using Cursed Shadow on two Pokémon to KO both of them at the same time. We both laughed at how crazy the match was and we wished each other good luck throughout the day.

1-0

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Round 2: vs Evan w/ Dragonmax (Hydreigon/Darkrai/Max Potion)

Round 2 I was going against my really good friend Tyler’s brother Evan. Evan got a Worlds Invite last year so I was sure I was going to be in for a close match. We both start and our hands were so terrible we both showed them to one another right before I used N on my first turn. His first turn he drew and passed. I drew an energy and attached and used Call for Family with Litwick.

Evan drew and sighed. After he used Juniper I saw why; he discarded 3 more Junipers with it. He drew into a Deino and benched it and passed. He hasn’t drawn an energy all game! I set up quite nicely (2 Chandelure, Vanilluxe, and a Darkrai) and take out his Deino while charging up my Darkrai and another Chandelure and Vanilluxe.

My last turn of the game was me using THREE Cursed Shadows and a Night Spear to KO his Darkrai – donking him. “Hmm… Chandelure the new turn 6 donk deck!” I felt bad for this win, but I think my epic win still makes it a fun one.

2-0

Round 3: vs James w/ Rayeels

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I felt that my good run was probably over. I had gotten extremely lucky those last 2 rounds and I didn’t expect to get that kind of start again. James is a good player and one who I haven’t had the best record against in the past. We get set up and start the game. He starts lone Tynamo NVI 39 and I quickly think “I thought that Tynamo wasn’t good anymore because of Tyrogue – wait… There isn’t a Tyrogue anymore… But there still is Darkrai… Hm… What other Pokémon does exactly 30 damage?”

Before he knew it, I set up a double KO on his 30 HP Tynamos with my Chandelures. He actually still managed to get 2 Eelektrik into play that game, making sure to bench 40 HP Tynamos. He still got set up, but with a PlusPower whiff he wasn’t able to KO my Chandelure with his Rayquaza EX and it made the game almost unwinnable for him.

I was able to KO his Rayquaza using a Darkrai EX and Chandelure combo. The next turn I was able to kill both of his Eelektriks for the game.

3-0

Round 4: vs Kaden w/ Zeels

I was playing Kaden, and this is funny because we seem to always play when I have a rogue deck, but never when I play something Tier 1. The first time I played him with my ReshiSwap (Reshiphlosion w/ Reuniclus) I got T2 2 Typhlosion and a Reuniclus and won. Then again with EnergyDrink (Lugia deck) I did 400 damage to his Reshiram-EX for the Donk on turn one. Now again I’m playing against him with ChandyBeach and I can tell he really wants to win this game.

When we start, he goes first and starts with Thundurus and gets the turn one charge along with benching multiple Tynamos (Darn, 40 HP this time). I have a horrid start and just to stay alive I had to use Call For Family for another Litwick. He actually misses the Energy drop and has to charge again. This allows me to live another turn and I draw an N.

I from there draw a Tropical Beach along with a hand I can nearly fully play down allowing me to draw a massive amount of cards. Kaden drew a pretty crummy hand from that N and is forced to try and play as much as he can (PlusPowers, attach DCE, and a Catcher) and then uses Tropical Beach.

I am now completely set up and use another N. Kaden had a nice hand now, but since I just N’d again, he was just shaking his head. Kaden didn’t get much more set up before I was in complete control and was able to take the game. Ah, a day of trends it is… so far.

4-0

Round 5: vs Adam w/ Terrakion/Terrakion-EX/Mewtwo EX/Bouffalant (SuperBouffer)

pokemon-paradijs.comI was playing against Adam who at the time had the most Championship Points in Arizona. This deck had a really good matchup against my deck so I wasn’t really looking forward to the win. I tried to keep my hopes up, but Adam was setting up quite nicely against my slow start. I benched the Darkrai only when I needed it, but the next turn he had a Catcher. He then proceeded to take prizes off of my Vanillites to the point where I barely had any left.

Then when I finally come back into the game I come back hard, making it so he needed Switch to really do anything. For quite a few turns he just passed. He drew a Super Scoop Up and used it immediately and flipped… tails. He had a pretty big hand and was probably close to drawing a switch, so I N’d him down to two cards, used Cursed Shadow, and Tropical Beached, drawing me 5 cards (I was down to 2 Prizes as well at this point).

If he didn’t win this turn, I would win so this was a much closer game than it should’ve been. I was surprised I hadn’t lost already to be honest. But when he draws his 2 cards he laughs and has a smile letting me know he drew something good. On his turn he extends his hand to shake and then the Switch and Catcher he drew off of the N letting me know I lost. (He Catchered the Darkrai, Switched into Terrakion-EX and used Pumped Up Kicks–er Smash.) That was a close game and was a really fun one to play.

4-1

Did you win?

Yes! Adam was also 4-1, and 2-of my other opponents made T4 giving me one heck of a resistence. I was amazed that a joke turned out to be a Battle Roads win for me and this put me 25 points at the time, in 3rd place in Arizona. This was the 2nd Battle Roads I had attended this season so for me this was pretty good.

More Ways to Walk the Beach

Now, The version of the Chandelure deck I played isn’t the only one that can still be made, as mentioned before. Those other ways include:

Darkrai/Terrakion/Chandelure/Sabeleye (haven’t come up with a shnazy name yet)

The idea is you play 4 Switch and try to spam it and use Junk Hunt to get as many Cursed Shadow drops as you can and then use Darkrai or Terrakion to clean up or keep spreading. I have built this since the tournament and can say it’s not all that bad. I beat my friend Tyler when he was using Zeels quite a few times. Further testing needs to be done before I can say it’s good or not, but it definitely sounds good on paper… and against Tyler of course.

Chandelure NVI/Chandelure NXD/Vanilluxe NXD (SuperSpread)

The idea for this is basically just a mix of the “Drop it Like It’s Hot” varirant and the one I used. The idea is you spread with Chandelure NVI’s Cursed Shadow and then turn over to his spicy twin brother Chandelure NXD to do some more spread. The problem is it is hard to get different multiple Stage Twos into play, but it sounds fun and if you were interested in “Drop it Like It’s Hot” then go for it!

Matchups

This will probably be a short list of matchups since I haven’t been able to test this a lot against a variety of decks. For my matchups I played 10 games and recorded the win loss record and a small description.

Zeels: 7/10

Surprisingly, Zeels is a really good matchup. If you manage to set up at the right time, you can start taking out Tynamos if they haven’t evolved and even their Eelektriks. This is extremely useful – I mean, Zeels without “eels” is just “Z” and just “Z” can’t take down a Chandy Beach.

Rayeels: 6/10

Rayeels is an okay matchup. The problem with it is, it can manage to KO something every turn, and this is a bit troublesome for ChandyBeach. Again, a similar strategy is what you do against Zeels is by taking the eels. Just a Rayquaza can’t take you down, and that is what will ultimately give you the upper hand and win. Taking out Eelektriks is your main game plan against all eel variants.

SuperBouffer (Terrakion/Terrakion-EX/Mewtwo EX/Bouffalant): 3/10

Yeah… a not so good matchup. They are able to take prizes off of your Darkrais with Catchers, so benching your Darkrais at the right time is crucial. Another thing to help this matchup is to try and get two Vanilluxe into play and avoid benching Darkrai altogether. This is hard to do, but it is possible and it is pretty much how I managed to win those 3 games that I did win.

DragonMax (Hydreigon/Darkrai/MaxPotion): 4/10

Here’s another not so perfect matchup. The reason this isn’t a good matchup is because spread doesn’t tend to do too well against high HP Basics. The Darkness Weakness on Chandelure is good and bad; a non-Weakness to Mewtwo is substituted for a Weakness to Darkrai. The way to win this matchup is to honestly just get lucky and set up faster than your opponent. Speed is the deciding factor as well as setting up a Terrakion. If you do those things, this matchup isn’t all that bad.

Let’s Tech It Up!

Here are a list of techs and what they’re useful for as well as how to make them fit into the deck.

Chandelure NXD

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This is a card I mentioned earlier as an addition to fully alter the deck. It can also be looked at as a one of. It will help add more damage to spread at the cost of an attack. This can allow you to do a possible 30 Cursed Shadow + 30 Cursed Shadow + Flame Burst = 150 damage spread. This an amazing ammount of spread damage and can really SEEL up the Eel Matchup as well as others. Pardon for my pun.

Anyway, to add this all is needed really is to take out 1 Chandelure NVI and add a Chandelure NXD and 2-3 Blend GRPD. Energy Switch isn’t as effective anymore, so you might want to drop that to a lower count.

Mewtwo EX

One of ChandyBeach’s hardest things to deal with are a fully loaded Mewtwo EX. Therefore, we remember one of the new basic rules of Pokémon “The best way to counter Mewtwo EX is with Mewtwo EX.” Well, dang, I couldn’t have said it any better myself.

I would only add 1 Mewtwo EX to my deck because I run two Super Rods and honestly, you only need one. This is also because they are hard to use. You need an Energy Switch and perfect timing to effectively use it. When I tested this I took out a Vanillite but I didn’t do much testing with it.

Shaymin EX

Another great tech for this deck is Shaymin EX. For the most part, your opponent is going to be taking Prize cards by the odds, so that way Shaymin can use its max potential. If you are falling hard core to those darned SuperBouffer decks then maybe Shaymin is the right tech for you!

To add this magical card to your deck add around 2-3 Blend GRPD to your deck. The reason I say the Blend instead of just Grass is because since this Blend counts as a Dark as well, it can let you retreat for free with Darkrai. Energy Switch is going to be a crucial card though, so keep it at a high number.

The End of My Long Walk Across the Chandy Beach

crazy-frankenstein.comAh, yes, it is that time of the article again. My walk has been used as rather an extended metaphor throughout this article but it does symbolize something. Chandelure has had it’s moment in the sun dropping it like it was hot, as well out partying with those crazy plants and birds, and now it is taking a break to eat ice cream.

Is this the best deck? Will it win every tournament? No, but you will have fun playing it. I’m actually writing this right now as I am unsleeving the deck – effectively the end of my walk. I feel I should pass this fun concept down the line… I’ve played every Chandelure deck that was in Competitive Play and I still plan to. But for now, I will put the deck down. By now I’ve already played it at more Battle Roads with success, just not as much as before.

I have 67 Championship Points; and that’s without having an invite to last year’s worlds. I have two more Battle Roads to attend and to those who have more as well, give this deck a try. No, it isn’t tier one. Maybe not even tier 1.5. But like I’ve said before, it’s fun, and having fun is what Pokémon is about at the end of the day. Until next time,

-Collin Coyle B. (Thatbulbasaurkid)

P.S. I run a YouTube channel with my friends called Pokéfriends56 (I know, creative as my Seel pun) and we should have Battle Roads matches up soon along with a whole bunch of good stuff! Be sure to check it out!

P.S.S. My dad was x-3 by lunch. Sometimes I told you so, doesn’t quite cut it. Love ya dad! :)